CYAP teen organizers' showcase art installation, making a case against the school-to-prison pipeline, July 1st, 2017. as seen in the video of our art installation, several organizers and myself created a minature prison cell from plywood, props brought from home, chalk, and speakers to play sound effects and my poem (which is transcribed below).
included in the video is the following group-artist statement: “created by a group of multi-racial, multi-gender/queer teens that have come together to promote social charge in SC and celebrate intersectionality with our young people. “IIIIIII” is a statement regarding our prison system. the current prison system is dysfunctional and does not serve all people of all identities, setting most folks who enter a penitentiary up for failure rather than for recovery. too many are sent too soon, especially black and brown youth (girls and boys alike) as well as queer children (especially trans youth). with this in mind, we present you with this experience: modeled after Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth for its simplicity and interactivity, we hope that you can be spurred to enact change to reverse the school-to-prison pipeline and the serious nightmare that is the American prison system. special thanks to the Carolina Youth Action Project for facilitating and funding our work as well as teaching us how to be the best activists we can possibly be.”
“IIIIIII”
it’s as though i forget that skies exist
blue, unyielding, [and] unforgivingly bright
oh, my world is clouded by an un-divine light
that glows within these halls
i saw a man pulled over brown skin
dripping from his white bones
the sun was heating him like he was wax
hands over his head like he knows only god can save him
my throat is closing the words are choking
these days are godless days god sits
in my heart heavy, watching, heedless
of my prayers and un-guiding as i ask:
“where is my milk? where is my honey?
honey [dear] you promised a land [but]
you forsake me to this broken place
of stolen dreams and torn skin
i smell a tinge of smoky tears and lingering iron
and i cant tell you if its the iron of fresh blood
or the steely encasements of bullets after its left a body
but i do know this one thing:
that when my body crawls wasted from
these halls jesus looks down tired of me
scrambling to make A’s in chemistry
when im haunted by memories of nightmares
yet to happen in a place so devastating
they call it hell on earth”
blue, unyielding, [and] unforgivingly bright
oh, my world is clouded by an un-divine light
that glows within these halls
i saw a man pulled over brown skin
dripping from his white bones
the sun was heating him like he was wax
hands over his head like he knows only god can save him
my throat is closing the words are choking
these days are godless days god sits
in my heart heavy, watching, heedless
of my prayers and un-guiding as i ask:
“where is my milk? where is my honey?
honey [dear] you promised a land [but]
you forsake me to this broken place
of stolen dreams and torn skin
i smell a tinge of smoky tears and lingering iron
and i cant tell you if its the iron of fresh blood
or the steely encasements of bullets after its left a body
but i do know this one thing:
that when my body crawls wasted from
these halls jesus looks down tired of me
scrambling to make A’s in chemistry
when im haunted by memories of nightmares
yet to happen in a place so devastating
they call it hell on earth”
edited for further readability